Universal Bets on Two More Dark Universe Movies Before the First Even Hits Theaters
Here’s how bubble economics works: When a specific commodity appears to be growing in value, investors funnel more money into it and that artificially inflates the value even further, which cycles back and attracts even more investor money. Eventually, however, the chickens must come home to roost and the actual value of that commodity must be recognized. If the return-on-investment potential fails to live up to the hype created around it, then a lot of people stand to lose a lot of money very quickly. Remember Kazaa, from way back when it looked like it was literally impossible to lose money by investing in online companies? Me neither!
In related news, Universal recently announced that they've added two more films to their Dark Universe, a planned multi-tier franchise based entirely upon speculative value. This Friday, Universal will unveil their Tom Cruise-led reboot of The Mummy, the film studio executives pray will earn enough money to justify the staggering expenditure they’ve dumped into this initiative already.
And perhaps as a show of Hollywood force, they’ve doubled down on a bet they could very well lose by expanding the total number of planned Dark Universe films to seven with modernizations of The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Brains of the outfit (and Mummy director) Alex Kurtzman dropped the following quote in an interview with Fandom:
We know we’re going to do Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Invisible Man.
In addition to the revelation that Dracula would indeed figure into this monster mash (Universal released Dracula Untold a few years ago and it’s still not entirely clear whether it fits into things), two of cinema’s most famously deformed ghouls shall make their return as well. This should keep Universal busy well into the next decade — whether that means reaping what they’ve sown or cleaning up the mess they’ve made of themselves has yet to be seen.